Arguing with a five year old is usually futile. Trust me. There is only so much their little brains can handle, and sometimes you just have to shake your head and laugh, and know that one day they will grow up and you won’t have to argue with them anymore (well at least about that thing!). Yesterday, my child assured me that I was not a woman, I was just a mom. It was my identity and I couldn’t be both. For some reason dad could also be ‘a man’, but not me. Just ‘a mom.’
For some people maybe that would be enough. Motherhood subsists as their whole identity. But I can assure you, there was a time before they were ‘mother’ and I promise, there are things that they can do beyond ‘motherhood.’ It is not my (or their) all encompassing identity. Of course, for most of us we realize this truth. We find ways to nurture that aspect of our person- finding ways to give, serve, teach, lead, work, etc. apart from our children. And as our children grow, their brains mature, they understand their identities apart from themselves. And yet, in some tangible way until they go through parenting themselves, it is hard for them to understand the innate struggle of roles vs. personhood.
Which brings me to the point. If God has revealed himself to us as Father, and as we know since God is not male (but spirit and both male and female were created in God’s image) then Father is not the entirety of God’s personhood God is Mother too. God does things outside of parenting Her children. God is both nurturing and providing in ways that may or may not fit our gender norms that we know in our culture. But needless to say whether or not we are comfortable calling God “Mother”, we can confidently say God is more than just a Father. There was a point before anything was created, and God existed. God probably did things, maybe lots of things, and is likely continuing to do ‘lots of things’ that are lost on our childlike finite brains.
We truly cannot comprehend all that God is and does, it (as mere ‘children’) is beyond our scope of understanding. But it does help to admit that we may not be able to fit God neatly in a box. God is not “Just our Father in Heaven”, and while our relationship with Him (child to parent) is often the most fitting posture we take– God is also so many other things. The breadth of Scripture is a story of 6,000 years of dealing with God’s children in various forms and stories. Our understanding of who God is as creator, and artist, as lover, as nurturer, as the one who sees us is all beautiful and the more expansive our understanding the better. With humility, we should also admit that there is more to God that can be discovered. There is more to the Divine’s ways that will be made clear. We do God justice by admitting the lack of knowing, the desire to know, and the faith that there is an infinite more to discover.